Headstone pictures CAMBUSNETHAN CHURCHYARD WISHAW

[ard]

Thanks so much, Lodger! I appreciate too the transcriptions!

The following is somewhat off-topic so maybe better as a private message but I thought I'd take a chance (If that is a problem, I apologize and am open to moving it elsewhere):
I just noticed that among your surname interests, you have the name Gilchrist. I was wondering if you had much information about your Gilchrist ancestors and their kin (i.e. whether it was a common family name, whether there were many unrelated families in the area....)

After I sent away for the death record of one of my ancestors (James Leggat, born circa 1817, Cambusnethan according to censuses), I learned that his mothers name Janet  Gilchrist:

James Leggat Fruit dealer married to Jane Frew
died July 25th (1880) Dalziel Fruit House
64 yrs
Father James Leggat, soldier* (deceased)
mother Janet Leggat ms Gilchrist (deceased)
British Cholera, 3 days
inf. Wm Ferguson, son in law.

II don't know where he was buried...
Unfortunately, I cannot find on Scotland's People a birth/bap. record for James jr. (or wether he had siblings) nor a marriage for his parents. So that side of my tree goes no further than James Leggat sr. and Janet Gilchrist. From what I can tell, their descendants seemed to have stayed around the area - Dalziel, Windmill Hill, Hamilton, Old Mondkland, Cambusnethan, Wishaw/Motherwell, etc.   

Based on Scottish naming patterns, I have wondered if Janet's father was Thomas Gichrist and mother (surname unknown), possibly, Agnes, Janet or Charlotte even...?. 

Does that fit anything that you have in your records?

* And a  question related to British history...really off topic - what affiliation would earn the title "soldier" in the early to mid 19th century?" Anyone?

[Forfarian]

* And a  question related to British history...really off topic - what affiliation would earn the title "soldier" in the early to mid 19th century?" Anyone?

I would take that to mean that he had served in the army at some point.

[Lodger]

Hi Ard,

Gilchrist is a fairly common name in the Lanarkshire area and, just to complicate things, before about 1800 is is often Gilkerson. I have Gilchrist's in my tree, mostly from Hamilton parish and, i suspect before that, they were in Carluke parish but I can't prove that - yet.

Can you relate to any of the families from the gravestone pictures? If you are sure, I can hunt around in the Cambusnethan burial records for more information.
Unfortunately, I can't find any of your Leggat's in Cambusnethan churchyard or cemetery. Some years are missing, especially for burials in common ground but I have something else still to try.

I've never heard of Dalziel Fruit House, a new one on me.

Just to cheer you up, here are 2 baptism entries from the register of Wishaw Relief Church.

JAMES, 1st child of James Leggat, wood merchant and Jean Frew, High Wishaw.
Born 12th January 1841, baptised 24th January 1841 by the Rev Peter Brown.

ISABELLA FREW, 2nd child of James Leggat, wood merchant and Jean Frew, High Wishaw.
(no birth date) Baptised 26th February 1843 by the Rev Peter Brown.

[Lodger]

Here is the Rev Peter Brown.

[ard]

Thanks Lodger,

Gilkerson? Never heard of that rendition! A great number of Scottish families immigrated to Canada (and elsewhere, of course) and the more I work on tree, the more I realize that many of the children I went to school with had surnames than turn up amongst my own branches. And, it so happens, our next-door neighbours back then happened to be Gilchirsts!

The MIs I requested have links to my family, but they are not direct ancestors but I am always looking for clues(I just looked for names I recognized among the ones you listed). For example, there as a Violet Halliday married George Brownlie in 1856 or Robert Halliday who married a Lilias Paterson... these are just 2 of the many children of Archibald Halliday and Marion Penman who were buried at Carluke (they too are indirect). I'm not sure how Thomas Halliday and Marion Bownlie may be connected to my tree, if at all.

As for Littlejohn, my great-great grandmother's sister, Margaret Dick Halliday, married David Littlejohn. whose parents were, in fact, Archibald Littlejohn and Marion Paterson. (Margaret and David named one of their daughters Marion Paterson Littlejohn). I do have the information for Margaret's burial (also at the old churchyard of Cambusnethan) but I don't know that David was buried there:

MARGARET LITTLEJOHN, Wishaw, aged 79 years, widow.
Parents - John Halliday & Elizabeth Blair Dick.
Interred in the old churchyard on 15th May 1911.

I also have other Halliday relatives who were buried in the new section of the Cambusnethan cemetery (including Margaret's brothers Robert (spouse Marion Allan) and John and two spouses) Although I have no images, I do have the placements etc.) Others of "my" Hallidays appear to have been buried in Carluke, though. However, my great grandmother Agnes and James Leggat III left Scotland and went to Cumberland!

You did definitely identified two children of James jr (although I had written down "wool" merchant rather than "wood'... wonder which would have been more likely. James, born 1841was in fact my direct ancestor  - while Isabelle married a William Watson and another daughter, Janet Gilchrist Leggat married William Ferguson!

I really appreciate you doing these look-ups and providing such detailed information.

Now there is the matter of the surname Binnie that you also have in your tree.... 

[ard]

* And a  question related to British history...really off topic - what affiliation would earn the title "soldier" in the early to mid 19th century?" Anyone?

I would take that to mean that he had served in the army at some point.

With respect to "soldier", I guess what I really want to know was, if James Leggat Sr. was identified as a "soldier", (deceased) on his son's record of death, does that mean "soldier" would have been his full-time occupation or even that he would have likely died as a soldier?  And if that could be the case, I am also unclear on what and where wars may have occurred that a Scottish soldier born in the late 18th century may have fought or died in. And that would  have been with the British army, I guess. I'm not from the UK nor am I very versed in such matters...

[Skoosh]

He would have been fighting the French & quite possibly in the local regiment the Cameronians! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameronian

Skoosh.

[Forfarian]

With respect to "soldier", I guess what I really want to know was, if James Leggat Sr. was identified as a "soldier", (deceased) on his son's record of death, does that mean "soldier" would have been his full-time occupation or even that he would have likely died as a soldier?

Could be either, but I would infer that he had served a term as a regular professional solider.

And if that could be the case, I am also unclear on what and where wars may have occurred that a Scottish soldier born in the late 18th century may have fought or died in.

If James was aged 64 when he died in 1880, he would have been born in 1815/1816. That's just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars which rumbled on from about 1790-ish until the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and included the Peninsular War in Spain/Portugal. I think there was also some sort of war in North America in 1812-ish that his father might have been involved in. And then there were always wars of one sort or another in Asia.

And that would  have been with the British army, I guess.

Yes. There were no separate Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish Armies, though there were regiments with those affiliations.

[Lodger]

Every nation had a Regular Army and Navy. Not all regular soldiers ever fired a shot in anger but the pay was steady and the British Army paid a pension, so that is another route you could go down, tracking him through the pension records which, I think, are at Kew, in London. Monica may be able to advise on that?
As for the name Binnie, mine were from the parish of Polmont, on the south bank of the river Forth.